One of the more inane comments that I have read over the past few days concerning the untimely death of Jonathan Augustus Benjamin Ball was that “he was the doyen of the South African publishing industry”. Among the many things he was, that he wasn’t.
He was the publishing industry: certainly that part of it that has grown to be the validation of civil society — political publishing. Prior to his publication of a book of immense bravery and lasting significance,
The Super Afrikaners (1978), in-depth political commentary tended to be found in the courage of journalists writing for their newspapers or magazines. There simply wasn’t the appetite among local book publishers to take on the Nationalist establishment. That is why even a personal account of the Treason Trial by Helen Joseph (who was a banned person after the trial) found its first home with Andre Deutsch in London.